Tag: Wisconsin cheese

If you think you’ve had every imaginable version of avocado toast, think again. Sheep milk cheese is the secret ingredient you didn’t even know you’ve been missing.

When Wisconsin Cheesemaker Brenda Jensen once again swept the entire fresh sheep milk cheese category at the World Championship Cheese Contest with her fresh Driftless cheeses, I had one thought: I bet it would make an amazing avocado toast.

That’s because six months ago, my husband and I purchased a coffeehouse and added an artisan cheese case. We revamped the menu using local foods and Wisconsin artisan cheese (shocking, I know).

On May 1, we launched a newly-tweaked menu with our own Firefly Avocado Toast featuring two slices of Madison Sourdough bread, avocado and a healthy dose of Driftless cheese. Simple, yet delicious. In less than a month, it’s proven so popular that Brenda has twice had to make special “emergency cheese” deliveries to our place, bringing 5-pound tubs of Driftless cheese with her.

Since launching Hidden Springs Creamery, near Westby 12 years ago, Brenda has earned more than 80 awards for her original sheep milk and mixed-milk cheeses. Driftless is a perennial winner. Deliciously simple and crafted from fresh sheep’s milk, it is wonderfully light, creamy and spreadable. It is also available in array of flavors, including Cranberry, Honey Lavender, and Sundried Tomato, each of which took first, second and third place at the World Championship Cheese Contest in March.

“To have my cheeses consistently earn awards in the same realm as some of the greatest cheeses and most famous cheesemakers in the world is an honor,” Jensen says. “We are especially grateful to everyone for supporting our signature Driftless cheese – a cheese we simply made up 12 years ago – and today are lucky enough to have featured in specialty shops across the nation.”

The fact is that luck doesn’t have much to do with Jensen’s success. The truth is that while Wisconsin is home to many an amazing cheesemaker, Brenda Jensen is simply one of the best. For 12 years, she and her husband, Dean, have dedicated themselves to growing their farm and improving the genetics and milk quality of their sheep. They reap the rewards from that hard work with award-winning cheese. I can’t think of a better cheese to celebrate with a good avocado toast.

Here’s a huge shout out to Wisconsin Cheesemaker Marieke Penterman, her amazing family and all the staff at Marieke Gouda for making Cheesetopia possible this year in Milwaukee.

What is Cheesetopia, you ask? It’s a festival I organize with the goal of bringing some of the best artisan cheesemakers from the Midwest to the heart of a different city every year. This year, Cheesetopia calls Milwaukee home, and thanks to the sponsorship of Marieke Gouda, the event is sure to be a success.

Already, the event is nearly sold out, with little to no publicity, thanks to the hundreds of loyal members of Wisconsin Cheese Originals. Today, less than 100 tickets remain on sale. Act quickly if you’re interested in attending.

Cheesetopia 2018 returns to downtown Milwaukee in the historic Grain Exchange room of the Mackie Building. Finished in 1880, the room was built as a sunken trading pit, where traders set the price of wheat. It was considered to be the most lavishly decorated public space of its time. The walls are adorned with large murals depicting the themes of transportation, agriculture, trade and commerce. Colossal faux-marble pillars boast carved depictions of locomotives and steamships. It is inside this room that 40 of the best artisan cheesemakers from across the Midwest will sample and sell more than 150 artisan cheeses.

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Cheesetopia brings a star-studded line-up of award-winning cheesemakers and artisan food producers to a unique venue in the heart of a different city every year. A cheesemaker, company owner, farmer or senior representative is required to be present for each company, ensuring attendees meet the makers of their favorite cheeses.

Big news, people! The world’s largest technical cheese competition is coming to Madison, giving the public a rare opportunity to taste more than 50 cheeses from across the globe and witness the reveal of the 2018 World Champion Cheesemaker.

Tickets to Cheese Champion, an evening of global cheese tasting presented by Wisconsin Cheese Originals and the World Championship Cheese Contest, are $25 and went on sale today. Held on Thursday evening, March 8, in the Monona Terrace Exhibition Hall, this signature event of the biannual contest is open to only 500 attendees, with all tickets sold in advance. Click here to get yours!

In addition to tasting more than 50 cheeses from 20 countries, you’ll learn cheese evaluation from international cheese experts while enjoying local specialty foods and craft beer samples, all the while tasting samples of some of the rarest cheeses from every corner of the globe. Plus, you’ll be on hand for the reveal of the 2018 World Champion Cheese, as 53 expert judges from 20 countries stand in salute of the winner. Doors open at 6:30 pm. See you there!

Exciting news, cheese peeps. My cheese world is changing, and it’s about to get filled with a whole lot more caffeine. Beginning Friday, December 1, my husband, Uriah and I are the proud new owners of Firefly Coffeehouse in Oregon, Wisconsin, and will be renaming it to (you guessed it): Firefly Coffeehouse & Artisan Cheese.

Next year marks 20 years that Uriah and I have lived in Oregon, and for much of the second half of that time, the Firefly has literally been our second home. We are regulars every morning for our game of pre-work cribbage while drinking our small lattes (the staff often sets up our drinks as we walk in the door). I teach at least two cheese classes there every month, Uriah runs a Euchre tournament on the second Thursday, and you can find me working on my laptop several times a week in my favorite lounge chair next to the fish tank.

For years, most every cheese distributor, cheesemaker and local government official has known where to find me when I don’t answer my cell phone: the Firefly. Folks have figured out that Oregon’s Living Room is my hideout. And starting next week, my hideout will be my official place of employment, as Uriah and I take the reigns from owner Erika Weidler and attempt to carry on the massively successful dynasty she has created in my town.

So what does this mean?

First, if you’re a regular at the Firefly, do not panic. We’re not changing anything for awhile. I’ll be busy for a couple of months just trying to figure out vendor contracts, credit forms, water filtration systems and navigating a payroll of 12 employees. I’m already having dreams I’ve forgotten to order cups. And so far, I’ve pulled a whopping 12 shots of espresso, most of them being mildly terrible. Luckily, I will soon be the very proud supervisor of six full-time trained baristas and an additional six part-time amazingly friendly staff, all of whom can pull a perfect shot every time, make a Hammy Bagel Breakfast Sandwich in under four minutes, and bake a perfect scone every morning.

Second, my life will still revolve around cheese. While I’ve saying goodbye to the awesome job I’ve had for the past five years as the specialty cheese buyer for Metcalfe’s Market, the hundreds of members of my Wisconsin Cheese Originals can still expect me to send them news of classes, dinners, tours and festivals. In fact, mark your calendars now for Cheesetopia Milwaukee on April 8, 2018.

Third, I will of course be introducing artisan cheese to the Firefly (duh), but please don’t be in a super big rush, because I want to do it right, and that takes time. You can expect the Firefly to become a whole lot cheesier closer to spring. Between now and then, we’ll be tweaking the menu to include more local ingredients. And some night in January, we’ll host a big party for everyone to drink practice shots of espresso until Jeanne pulls 12 perfect ones in a row.

One more date to mark on your calendar: Friday, December 1 at 2 pm. That’s when the Oregon Area Chamber of Commerce is bringing their spool of red ribbon and giant scissors and we officially christen the new Firefly Coffeehouse & Artisan Cheese. I am so flipping excited (and nervous and overwhelmed, but mostly excited, but really nervous) and I can’t wait to share this journey with all of you. I’m finally marrying the two food loves of my life: cheese and coffee. And best of all, I’ve got Uriah beside me. Cheese on.

People who don’t work in the dairy industry are always amazed when they visit my house and come across back issues of Cheese Market News and The Cheese Reporter.

“Wait, you actually read these? How on earth can there be TWO national weekly newspapers dedicated to just cheese?” and the standard: “Wow, you’re weird.” These are the same comments I get when I take past issues into a coffee shop and dare to catch up on cheese news in public.

While I appreciate keeping up on the latest technology, industry news, commodity block prices and Class III milk futures that these publications provide, it’s always a jolt to sit down and read them after I’ve visited a small-batch, artisan cheesemaker in a far away place. I get reminded in a hurry of what’s important to Americans.

For example, here are three headlines from the current issue of Cheese Market News: “Laughing Cow Adds New Flavors to Cheese Dippers Line” and “Fairlife Introduces SuperKids Ultra-Filtered White and Chocolate Milks With Omega-3” and “Borden Cheese Unveils Snack Bars.” I’m not even cherry-picking headlines from multiple pages – all of these stories actually exist on the centerfold pages of 8 and 9 in the October 13, 2017 issue of CMN.

When I compare these American dairy industry headlines to passages of the new book by Bronwen and Francis Percival: Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese, I get a little depressed. In America, we are so focused on creating the next biggest, boldest flavor and punching it into the most-convenient-to-eat dairy package, that I’m not sure we still appreciate what actual milk can taste like when we turn it into cheese without adding starter culture cocktails, berries or peppers.

Creating – and appreciating – simple cheese is going out of style in America. In an instant gratification society of snap chats, instant messaging and presidential orders issued in 140 characters, more of us are demanding every bite of cheese should rocket every one of our senses. Every. Single. Time.

I compare those headlines to the half dozen sheep dairies I visited in the French and Spanish Basque region last month, and I remember tasting cheeses made from just milk, rennet and salt. No added berries. Not a pepper in sight. Most of these cheesemakers weren’t even adding starter cultures. The tools at their disposal included a recipe for “mountain cheese” that had been passed down through generations, and a reliance on raw milk that contained enough natural bacteria to acidify on its own. (If you’re not familiar with what I mean by starter cultures, here’s an excellent primer from HomeCheeseAdam).

Were these Basque sheep milk cheeses flaming rockets of flavor? Did they transform my every sense into rainbows and unicorns? They did not. But each cheese was slightly different. Each was startling in its simplicity. And each allowed me to taste and appreciate the valley, mountain top or farm on which it was made.

Cheese worth eating has a story. It doesn’t come conveniently packaged, and it doesn’t have the words super or ultra in its name. What it does have is a story you can taste. In fact, my favorite passage from the Percivals’ book, Reinventing the Wheel, comes near the end, and after reading 250 pages that reignited my passion for artisan cheese, this passage was like salve to my soul: “If it is a story that we are buying, then it should be a story that we can taste. And if we value environmental and farming decisions, these are the attributes that we need to value. This is the ‘best’ taste for now. It is the moral dimension of flavor.”

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You can meet the Percivals and hear them speak on Sunday, November 5 at The Edgewater in Madison, Wisconsin. The pair, along with Uplands’ cheesemaker Andy Hatch, are presenting a 90-minute “Taste of Place” seminar featuring cheeses from Europe and America. Tickets available only in advance here. The seminar is part of Wisconsin Cheese Originals’ Wisconsin Cheese Camp.

If you’ve ever dreamed of meeting the person who makes your favorite Wisconsin artisan cheese, then I have great news. Tickets to Wisconsin Cheese Camp, a two-day cheese festival I’m hosting in Madison next month, go on sale Tuesday, October 3 at 8 a.m. Set your alarm now.

What is Wisconsin Cheese Camp, you ask? Well, it’s a series of events over the course of two days during the weekend of November 4-5, all located at The Edgewater in Madison. Each event is designed to help you get to know your favorite artisan cheesemaker better while eating the cheeses you like best. Basically, it’s a big cheese party, and I’d love for you to attend.

The weekend kicks off bright and early Saturday morning with two all-day bus tours, each visiting three different dairy and cheese plants, where you’ll tour the factory, talk shop with the owner, and taste their favorite cheeses. Each tour includes lunch, transportation in a big comfortable coach bus, and all tastings. With increasing food safety regulations, most cheese plants no longer offer tours, so this is your chance to see things up close and personal.

A huge thank you to Carr Valley Cheese, who stepped up to sponsor Wisconsin Cheese Camp. In fact, aged Cheddars crafted by Carr Valley’s Master Cheesemaker Sid Cook, as well as a variety of Wisconsin cheesemakers, will be featured in the Saturday night Wisconsin Cheddar Dinner at The Edgewater. Plus, author Gordon Edgar, cheese buyer for Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco, will be the dinner’s keynote speaker, and all dinner attendees will receive a complimentary copy of his book: Cheddar: A Journey to the Heart of America’s Most Iconic Cheese.

On Sunday, a 90-minute TastingSeminar on “Taste of Place” will be presented by Uplands Cheesemaker Andy Hatch and Bronwen and Francis Percival, authors of the new book: Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese. Bronwen is the cheese buyer for Neal’s Yard Dairy in London, and Francis is a cheese and wine writer and educator in the United Kingdom. All seminar attendees will receive a complimentary hard-cover copy of the Percivals’ new book, which is earning rave reviews, including this one in the Wall Street Journal.

Of course, no cheese camp would be complete without the chance to meet all of your favorite cheesemakers in one room, so that’s why Sunday afternoon marks a Meet the Cheesemaker Gala. You’ll get to meet 30 Wisconsin cheesemakers, taste 150 cheeses, drink free beer and wine (drinks are included in the ticket price) and nosh on yummy appetizers from The Edgewater. Check out the list of cheesemaker rock stars appearing here.

A big thanks to the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board for its support of Wisconsin Cheese Camp. Thanks to their generosity, all attendees to the Sunday Meet the Cheesemaker Gala will receive a complimentary insulated lunch bag with the Wisconsin Cheese logo. Plus, VIP attendees will even get a bag stuffed with Carr Valley cheese (VIP attendees also get in one hour early to Meet the Cheesemaker).

For ticket prices and a listing of all cheesemakers involved, please visit my website, Wisconsin Cheese Camp. I’d love to see you in Madison during the first weekend of November!

Listen to a podcast with Master Cheesemaker Mike Brennenstuhl, General Manager Mary Beth Hill, and learn more about Door Artisan Cheese Company on Cheese Underground Radio:

Subscribe to future episodes by searching for Cheese Underground in your podcast app!

A bit of the backstory:

Imagine building a brand new artisan cheese factory. You’ve made your very first batch of cheese, and just days later, opened a shiny new retail store. It’s the beginning of a busy tourist season in Door County, Wisconsin. Customers are flowing in, eager to see a state-of-the art factory, cheese market, restaurant and wine counter. You’ve got cases filled with nearly a hundred different cheeses, charcuterie from around the world, and specialty food items for sale. But everyone wants one thing: to taste and buy your cheese. The problem? None of it will be ready for months.

That’s the situation Master Cheesemaker Mike Brennenstuhl, owner of Door Artisan Cheese Company, found himself in this spring. After building a brand new, 18,000 square-foot facility in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, that includes a retail market selling more than 100 different varieties of cheese, a wine counter with 150 different wines from around the world, and a fine-dining restaurant serving small plates and full entrees, the one thing Mike Brennenstuhl could not offer was his own cheese. It just wasn’t ready yet.

“It was brutal in the beginning,” Mike says. “We did good sales from day one, but how do you explain to people who come in that you don’t have any of your own cheese ready yet? We were making fresh cheeses, like Colby, but even that takes a month to age out. We’re finally in a place now where we have some cheeses for sale that we’re making, and it’s been a lot more fun.”

“In August of 2016, we blasted our first stick of dynamite,” says Mike. It turns out most of Door County is rock from the Niagara Escarpment, a prominent rock ridge that spans nearly 1,000 miles in an arc across the Great Lakes region. To build Door Artisan Cheese Company, Mike’s crew had to blast 18 feet down and remove 34,000 cubic yards of rock to pour a foundation. All that rock had to be crushed and re-used on site. Most of it went to build a beautiful rock patio just off the restaurant, perfect for outdoor dining and sipping a glass of fine wine.

Nine months later, Door Artisan Cheese Company opened on April 22. Since then, Mike and Master Cheesemaker Jim Demeter have been making cheese non-stop. Inside the facility’s 5,000 square-foot caves sit some of the American Originals Mike’s already created, including:

BelaSardo, a Romano-style cheese crafted in a unique barrel shape

Rosette, brined in Italian red wine for five days (Mike won’t disclose his secret wine of choice, but it looks beautiful)

BelAdagio, a parmesan made in 20-pound wheels

Valmy, named after the community of Valmy just down the road, a salty, creamy cheese made in the Trappist style and washed with Chocolate Stout, aged 4-6 months.

Zivile, named after of a favorite employee, a Swedish Fontina-style cheese

1265, a raw milk British Shopshire Blue -style, named after 1265 Lombardy Avenue, the corporate office of the Green Pay Backers, and a green & gold cheese still in development.

Crema Pressato, a young Asiago-style

Top Hat Cheddar

Big Horn Colby, Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack

All of the milk used to make Door Artisan cheeses comes from Red Barn Family Farms, a small group of dairy farmers in the Appleton area committed to farming sustainably. One of the most interesting cheeses made from that special milk is BelaSardo, formed in a unique shape and made from molds that Mike hunted down and imported from Sardinia, an island off of Italy with a rich cheesemaking tradition. BelaSardo looks like a miniature beer barrel.

“When my family was making cheese in my hometown of Symco, Wisconsin, we made a cheese called Sardo Romano – this was back in the 1960s. As I learned the trade, I made my first full vat of cheese at age 16, and I made a vat of Sardo Romano. That little round barrel was quite popular for a long period of time, and for whatever reason, going into the 1980s, it disappeared,” Mike says. “We are now the only manufacturer in North America that is making that shape of cheese again. We’re going to create a whole line of cheeses made in that shape, so that when people see it, they know it was made at Door Artisan Cheese Company.”

While his future may be in barrel-shaped American Originals, Mike Brennenstuhl is already famous for making amazing blue cheese. In the 2000s, Mike created a full line of award-winning blues at Seymour Dairy (now owned by Great Lakes Cheese). Today, he’s itching to start making a line of blues again, and is planning to release his 1265 Shropshire-style blue around Christmas.

When Mike and Jim make cheese at Door Artisan Cheese, one of them almost always wears a headset with a microphone. Guests watching through the viewing window can press a button and talk directly to a cheesemaker. Mike and Jim are able to answer questions on the spot and share the steps of cheesemaking with visitors.

“Our goal with Door Artisan Cheese was to enhance the experience of people visiting and living in Door County,” Mike says. “I think we’ve accomplished that. We’ve learned a lot this year, and I think next year will really be our breakout year in the business. We’re all about celebrating Wisconsin cheese.”

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Today’s Cheese Underground Radio is sponsored by Dairy Connection Incorporated, supplier of cultures, enzymes, cheesemaking supplies and trusted expertise since 1999. A family-owned business based in Madison, Wisconsin, the dedicated Dairy Connection team takes pride in its commitment to be the premier supplier to artisan, specialty and farmstead cheesemakers nationwide. To learn more, visit dairyconnection.com.

Listen to the podcast with Sid Cook, learn about the new American Originals he’s cooking up, and hear from a few of his industry colleagues about the difference Sid has made in American artisan cheese on Cheese Underground Radio:

Subscribe to future episodes by searching for Cheese Underground in your podcast app!

A bit of the backstory:

In just a couple of months, Sid Cook, owner of Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of earning his Wisconsin cheesemaker’s license. You might think that because he’s spent a lifetime over a cheese vat, he might be ready to retire. But you’d be wrong.

When I sat down with Sid last week to talk cheese and mentioned that he was coming up on a half century of cheesemaking, at first he didn’t believe me. He took a second to do the math. And before he concluded that I was right, he revealed he’d actually been making cheese for several years with his dad before he ever got his license. “I was making my own vats when I was 12 years old,” Sid says. “I always really enjoyed being in the factory, and back then, you opened the kitchen door, and the vats were there.”

Here’s the thing about Sid Cook: he never stops working long enough to think about how long he’s been working. He may get a little good-natured teasing from his peers for no longer being in the cheese room every day, but that’s because his time is now more valuable thinking about what new cheeses to make. And just to be clear, he’s already made enough cheese in his lifetime for two or three people.

Before he became a professional cheesemaker, Sid earned a degree in political science and considered going to law school. But when he realized that meant he’d be sitting at a desk for a good part of the day, making cheese started to sound better. So after college, he worked for his dad for a year, and then prepared to purchase the business. After that, he made cheese seven days a week at two different cheese factories.

“I made cheese at the factory in Mauston, and once the cheese was in the forms or in the pre-press, then I would do down to the LaValle factory and make cheese there, too,” Sid said. “Then I’d do accounts receivable and accounts payable. I’d take a little nap under my desk until the phone rang, and then I’d wake up, finish up, and start over the next day. I did that from 1975 to 2003.”

Sid has made 40 or 50 different kinds of cheese and has developed recipes for dozens of American originals. Many of them are made from mixed milks – cow, sheep and goat. “You can make a different spaghetti sauce every day,” he said. “It’s the same way with cheese. You can develop a recipe, make that type of cheese, and then take it in the direction you want it to go through affinage and what temperatures you’re curing it at.” He says making cheese is like a working on a blank slate: anything is possible.

He’s been working on a new cheese for two or three years that will debut later this year: Fontina de Provence – it’s Fontina coated with Herbs de Provence. “We’ve sold it experimentally for a little while out of our retail stores, and it’s been selling well, so we’re going to roll it out,” he says.

Also new: Carr Valley Cheese Stix, the debut of artisan cheese single-serving snack packages. They’re available in Cranberry Chipotle Cheddar, Goat Cheddar, Native Sheep Cheddar, Smoked Cheddar, as well as long, slender sticks of Carr Valley Bread Cheese that are unbelievably warm and squeaky once you microwave them in the package for 10 seconds. He’s also preparing to roll out specialty butters with sheep cream, goat cream, cow cream, and a mix of the three that will be packaged in colored foils in quarter-pound three-inch squares.

“I don’t like to do things that other people are doing,” he says.

Over the years, while he was busy making cheese, he was also concentrating on building a business dynasty. Today, he owns and oversees four cheese factories, eight retail stores and a large mail-order business, in addition to a robust wholesale and foodservice distribution line.

It’s a dramatically different business model than his parents and grandparents operated under. As cheesemakers, they crafted 60-pound commodity cheese blocks and sold them green, or not aged, to a large distributor. They’d deliver the cheese on Friday and have a check by Tuesday. In this day and age, Sid Cook is a cheesemaker, a cheese ager, a distributor, a packager and a retailer. He sometimes waits 10 years to get paid for his aged cheddar. I asked him what he thought the generations of cheesemakers who came before him in his family might think of where he’s taken the company.

“My dad was very proud. When people would ask him about me getting into the cheese business, he’d say, ‘He just doesn’t know any better.’ And he always said it with a big smile. My parents made cheese their whole lives. I think they were just thrilled someone was doing what they had done.”

While Sid does not have an obvious heir apparent to take over Carr Valley Cheese, he doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon. He and his wife, Lisa, have talked through several scenarios where he stays involved in the business but perhaps brings in a full-time day-to-day CEO and board of directors. In the meantime, when newer folks to the industry come to Sid for advice, he’s honest to the point of being downright blunt. He wants to make sure people know how much work there really is in making and selling cheese. And most people respect that.

One person who has always respected Sid is George Crave, owner of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese in Waterloo, Wisconsin. “I was just dreaming about making cheese, and Debbie, my wife, and I went into the Center for Dairy Research to discuss the possibilities and research cheese,” George said. “We met Sid there – he was no doubt qualifying for another master’s certificate. We explained what we were thinking about doing: making cheese on our own farm, from our own milk, and Sid was very congenial and wished us luck, saying it would take us a few years, but if we were serious, he wished us nothing but well. Realizing all of his accomplishments, he could have said: ‘Go home, keep milking your cows and leave cheesemaking to the masters.’ But he didn’t, and I’ve always remembered that.”

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Today’s Cheese Underground Radio is sponsored by Dairy Connection Incorporated, supplier of cultures, enzymes, cheesemaking supplies and trusted expertise since 1999. A family-owned business based in Madison, Wisconsin, the dedicated Dairy Connection team takes pride in its commitment to be the premier supplier to artisan, specialty and farmstead cheesemakers nationwide. To learn more, visit dairyconnection.com.

Listen to a podcast with Tony Hook, his sister, Julie, and what it takes to sell cheese at the largest producer-only farmer’s market in America on Cheese Underground Radio:

Subscribe to future episodes by searching for Cheese Underground in your podcast app!

A bit of the backstory:

A few weeks ago, I called cheesemaker Tony Hook in Mineral Point with the idea of doing a story on what it was like to sell cheese at the largest producer-only farmer’s market in the nation. Every Saturday morning from April to November, about 170 stands pop up on the capital square in Madison, Wisconsin. All of the items for sale are grown, raised, and produced by the person behind each table.

Tony told me he usually arrives by 4:45 a.m., so I told him I’d see him there. I’m not entirely sure he believed me, so as he navigated the orange construction barrels on Pinckney Street in his Chevy Tahoe and trailer at 4:40 am, he shook his head in disbelief as I greeted him at the curb.

“Well, you told me you’d be here early, but I didn’t think you meant this early,” he said. As I helped him unload the trailer in the pitch dark under the light of a street lamp, it occurred to me how very quiet a city can be before dawn. Hell, even the swarms of squirrels that usually dot the capital grounds looking for leftovers weren’t even up yet. And to think, in just a couple of hours, the market would be so crowded that customers three-deep would be vying to buy cheddar, blue and American original cheeses from the Hook’s Cheese team.

Tony and his wife, Julie Hook, have been selling their cheeses at the Dane County Farmer’s Market since 1994, and they have it down to a science. Tony is generally in charge of setting up the booth, and Julie is in charge of prep work – cubing cheeses, setting up everything on the tables, and making sure toothpicks are in the right spot.

But this week, Julie is missing, because she’s getting a new knee in a few weeks, and standing on the cement aggravates the pain. So, Tony is happy to see another family member arrive – someone who actually knows what she’s doing (unlike me) – and that’s his sister, also named Julie. When he’s talking about his wife and sister, he keeps his Julies straight this way: Julie Ann is his wife, and Julie Marie is his sister. Because they all work together in the same cheese plant, middle names are key when calling for a Julie.

Now that Julie Marie is here, the set-up really begins to click along. We unload the Tahoe, which is filled to the absolute brim with more than a dozen giant square blue coolers, filled with dozens of varieties of cheeses, and each cooler is meticulously labeled with the contents. I get tasked with emptying little cubes of cheese from plastic baggies into individual sample containers, so that in another hour, customers can try each cheese before they buy it.

Before long, we look at our watches and it’s already 6 a.m. The market officially opens at 6:15 a.m., so we snag Tony for a few minutes to talk cheese before the crowds descend, and Julie Marie promises to hold down the fort.

I ask Tony why he’s been selling cheese at the Dane County Farmer’s market (which celebrates its 45th year this summer), since the early 1990s. “This is the best market in the country,” he says. “About 6 percent of our overall sales comes from this market. We’re selling cheese in 37 states, and we attribute an awful lot of our artisan cheese growth to this market.”

Up until about 2001, the Hooks were making big vats of commodity cheeses – Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack – and selling that cheese to “the big guys”, who then sold it under a third-party label. “In 2001, we cut back on making cheese, and said: ‘Alright, everything’s going to go under our label. It’s going to have Hook’s on it, no matter where it goes,’” Tony said. “That’s when we started dealing with small specialty retailers, grocery stores and distributors that were willing to pay a little bit better. We attribute a lot of getting our name out there to the chefs buying our cheese here at the market.”

Back in 1994, the Hooks sold at 10 different varieties of cheese. In 1997, they started making blue cheese. Today, they make 70 different varieties of cheese, including dozens of different ages of Cheddar and Swiss. They also specialize in making mixed milk cheeses, and are making more sheep and goat’s milk cheeses every year. They purchase their sheep and goat milk each from one farm, while all the cow’s milk cheeses come from three small farms, the largest of which milks 50 cows. These are the same three farms that have shipped milk to the Hooks since they started making cheese in Mineral Point in 1976. “We’re trying to keep the little guys in business,” Tony says.

We walk with Tony back to his cheese stand, and by now, it’s already starting to get busy. People in this town love their Saturday morning farmer’s market, and many come early to get the best selection. We walk past stands of apples, popcorn, organic vegetables and beautiful bouquets of flowers.

Once we’re back at the Hook’s booth, it doesn’t take long for customers to start sampling and buying cheese. One customer wants to know the difference between different ages of cheddars, and Tony does a remarkable job of explaining in detail how acid plays a huge part in the flavor of cheese. His cheddars aged 2, 3, 5, and 6 years will be more acidic, while the cheddars aged 10 and 12 years are much smoother, sweeter and full of calcium lactate crystals. The customer purchases the 10-year cheddar. By the way, that’s the same age cheddar Tony says he keeps in his fridge. Every day.

By this time, I am in serious need of coffee, so we say our goodbyes to Tony and Julie and head across the street for caffeine. And this being Wisconsin, there is of course a guy standing on the corner of the farmer’s market, playing an accordion for tips. We put a dollar in his bucket and walk away, humming “On Wisconsin.”

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Today’s Cheese Underground Radio is sponsored by Dairy Connection Incorporated, supplier of cultures, enzymes, cheesemaking supplies and trusted expertise since 1999. A family-owned business based in Madison, Wisconsin, the dedicated Dairy Connection team takes pride in its commitment to be the premier supplier to artisan, specialty and farmstead cheesemakers nationwide. To learn more, visit dairyconnection.com.

Listen to an interview with the farmer, the cheesemaker and the cows behind two of the best cheeses in America on Cheese Underground Radio:

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A bit of the backstory:

Located on scenic Highway 23 between Dodgeville and Spring Green, Wisconsin, Uplands Cheese is one of the best known farmstead cheese plants in the nation. Its flagship cheese, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, is the only cheese in America to ever win both the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest and take Best in Show – three different years – at the American Cheese Society Judging Competition. Uplands is run by business partners Scott Mericka and Andy Hatch. Scott is the herdsman and Andy is the cheesemaker. Together, they and their families produce seasonal milk and seasonal cheese, two incredibly uncommon commodities in the United States, a country where everyone, it seems, wants their favorite food year-round.

Last week, we caught up with the pair just in time for evening milking and helped Scott bring in the cows from pasture. Then, we sat down with Andy in the cheese plant and talked about the difference seasonal milk makes in Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Rush Creek Reserve, and a new cheese he’s working on.

We arrive at Uplands Cheese just as Uplands herdsman Scott Mericka is coming in from building fence. He’s dressed in a bright blue t-shirt filled with holes, shorts that are a little too short, and knee-high rubber boots. I tell him I’ve never met a farmer before who wears shorts, and he laughs, and makes a joke that at least they’re not Daisy Dukes. We start walking out to the pasture to bring in the cows for the evening milking. We’ve gotten a lot of rain in southern Wisconsin this summer, and the pastures are unusually lush for late August.

“We’re milking a little over 200 cows right now and catching up on things that we couldn’t get done in the springtime,” Scott says. The cows at Uplands are rotationally grazed, which means the cows are moved to a different paddock every 12 hours with fresh grass. The cows are also bred seasonally, which means they all give birth to calves in the spring and are dry – or don’t need to be milked – for a few months in the dead of winter. This is the old-fashioned way of farming, long abandoned by most dairy farmers who like to get paid for milk year-round. But unlike Scott and Andy, most dairy farmers don’t own their own cheese factory.

“Most farmers don’t get a chance to own their milk market,” Scott says. “I have a way to control the milk price and volatility, which is really important for a young family. It’s nice for both Andy’s family and my family to be able to control the price we’re getting paid for our milk.”

At this point, we look up at the sky and see a thunderstorm is headed our way, so we let Scott do his thing with getting the cows in. They know that his whistle means it’s time to head to the barn.

We stand off to the side, and the cows slowly start walking past us on the way to the barn. It’s not raining yet, and one of them, a dark cow named Cocoa, walks right up to me and demands attention. “Ah, I see you found Cocoa, or that Cocoa found you,” says Scott, referring to the black cow that is currently head-butting me, demanding to be petted continuously.

After we get the cows up and into the barn, we head into the cheese plant, where cheesemaker Andy Hatch and Esther Hill have a table filled with dozens of plugs of Pleasant Ridge Reserve. Andy and Esther are evaluating several vats of cheese and invite us to participate. We take our time, because it’s August, and that means Andy’s not making cheese. That’s because August in Wisconsin is usually hot and dry, and neither the grass nor the milk usually hits exceptionally high quality standards. So, Scott and Andy instead sell their milk to another manufacturer, and take time to work on other stuff. For example, today, Scott’s been building fences, and Andy took the time to answer his email, which means Cheese Underground Radio is sitting at his table.

As we taste different vats of Pleasant Ridge Reserve, I ask Andy to talk a little about what seasonality of milk means to a cheesemaker.

“There are a couple of ways to look at it,” Andy says. “First, there’s the poetic way: that we are preserving the bounty of summer. We make cheese seven days a week, and the cows are in a different pasture every day. It’s almost a log of the season, as if we’re bottling time. And, then there’s the practical way: it’s a competitive strategy. Seasonal milk is giving our cheese the most distinctive flavor possible.”

Andy starts making Pleasant Ridge Reserve in the spring, after the cows have calved in the pastures, usually starting the first week in May. Then he and his team will make Pleasant Ridge every day for a solid 80 days. They take a break in August because of the weather. This year, he could have kept making cheese straight through August because of the mild weather and steady rains, but his cheese caves are full. That’s why he’s planning an expansion for more cheese aging space. He resumes making Pleasant Ridge again in September into October, and then switches to Rush Creek Reserve in October into November.

After Rush Creek season is over, Andy says he still has a few weeks of beautiful grass-based milk in early November. It is this period of the year where he is experimenting with a new cheese: a small-format soft cheese, which to date, has only been tasted by Andy and his team, and the farm’s pigs. He’s still perfecting a recipe and is in no rush to release a third cheese to the market.

“There are only so many times in a cheesemaker’s career where you’re at the drawing board and you can do all sorts of goofy stuff. Once you hone in on a cheese, and the market has expectations for it, now you’re talking about a life of refining and tweaking,” Andy says. “So, to be at the drawing board is fun. We’re playing around with different shapes – rounds, squares, pyramids. We’ve learned a certain amount about cultures and ripening techniques. This year we’ll use last year’s trials and narrow it down pretty quickly. We know more about what we want. But then again, there’s what we want, and then there’s what the market wants.”

I tell him that he’s already making two world-class famous cheeses, and maybe he’s earned the right to be a little selfish and make a third cheese that makes him happy. He demurs. “I’m in love with Pleasant Ridge Reserve, really,” he says. “I wouldn’t make anything else. And maybe we won’t in the long run, but I know there’s milk there that can be made into another cheese.”

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Love cheese more. This episode of Cheese Underground Radio is sponsored by Fromagination, Madison’s premier cheese shop, located in the heart of America’s Dairyland, right on the capital square. Fromagination’s team of expert cheesemongers help you select the perfect cheeses and companions for every occasion. Shop online at fromagination.com, or better yet, visit and taste the cheeses that make Wisconsin famous. Fromagination. Love cheese more.

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Cheese Underground is a blog and podcast written and co-produced by Jeanne Carpenter, an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional.

Jeanne is an award-winning journalist, former spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, and was the specialty cheese buyer for Metcalfe’s Markets in Wisconsin.

Today, she and her husband, Uriah, own and run Firefly Coffeehouse & Artisan Cheese in their hometown of Oregon, Wisconsin, and are committed to building a community gathering place for folks who like good coffee, good food & good cheese.